Chair with indexing supports

ABSTRACT

A chair is comprised of a main body including a seat portion with a back portion extending therefrom and two confronting sidewalls formed integrally therewith and somewhat extended downwardly to form legs of the chair. The confronting sidewalls are externally and indexably provided with support arms for enabling the chair to serve as either a rocking chair or a stationary chair.

United States Patent [191 Nose [ Apr. 16, 1974 CHAIR WITH INDEXINGSUPPORTS [76] Inventor: Jiro Nose, No. 7-14-5, l-Ion-cho,

Funabashi, Japan [22] Filed: Mar. 29, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 239,135

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data June 23, 1971 Japan 46-54366 Nov.15, 1971 Japan... 46-106777 Nov. 15, 1971 Japan 46-106778 [52] U.S. Cl297/258, 297/377, 297/457 [51] Int. Cl A47c 7/14, A47c 3/00 [58] Fieldof Search 297/258, 262, 270, 377,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Hamilton et al 297/3779/1970 Metzger 297/258 6/1902 Roberts 297/270 X Primary Examiner-CasmirA. Nunberg [5 7] ABSTRACT A chair is comprised of a main body includinga seat portion with a back portion extending therefrom and twoconfronting sidewalls formed integrally therewith and somewhat extendeddownwardly to form legs of the chair. The confronting sidewalls areexternally and indexably provided with support arms for enabling thechair to serve as either a rocking chair or a stationary chair.

4 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures PATENTEDAPRIB I974 3 804459 SHEU 1 [If 2EATENTEDAPR 16 19M SHEET 2 [IF 2 FIGS FiG.6

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to achair and particularly a chair for body which is specially balanced andconstructed to let baby sit, sleep, feed and play safely, with agentle,soothing rocking motion or a stationary settlement as desired.

Hitherto, the cradle or rocking chair usually necessitates an anchoringdevice when it is needed to be positioned stationarily without entailingany rocking motion.

It is, therefore, a general object of the invention to provide a chairwhich may be used as either a rocking chair or a stationary one withoutrequiring any anchoring device.

In accordance with the invention, the chair is comprised of a main bodyincluding a seat portion with back portion extended therefrom and twoconfronting sidewalls formed integrally therewith and somewhat extendeddownwardly to form legs of the chair. The confronting sidewalls areexternally and indexably mounted with two support arms of substantiallyear form each of which having at its one end a head portion of largewidth providing an apertured means adapted to be indexably engaged withpost means projecting from the sidewalls and at its opposite end a tailend of small width adapted to be interconnected with a tail end of theother support arm through a connection laid across the rear side of theseat back.

A principal object of the present invention is to provide a chair whichcomprises a main body including a seat portion with a back portionintegrally extending therefrom, two sidewallsjintegrally provided atopposite sides of the main body, each sidewall consisting of atriangular segment having a base linking between a top corner ofthe backportion and an end corner of the seat portion with a slow curve and arounded apex with sides extending from a boundary of the body seat witha steep slope to form one of legs of the chair and two support armsindexably mounted to outer sides of the sidewalls respectively.

Another objects, features and advantages of the invention will beapparent from the following description in connection with theaccompanying drawing in which:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of thechair in a complete assembly in accordance with the present invention,

FIG. 2 is a longitudinally sectioned view of the main body of the chairtaken along the line.IIII of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a sectional elevation of a connection between the support armat its tail end and a connection member.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In FIGS. 1 and 2, the chair inaccordance with the present invention comprises a main body 10 whichincludes a seat portion 12 and a back portion 14 extending upwardly fromthe seat portion 12 with a little level thus forming the main body intoan acute form in section as best shown in FIG. 2 and is provided at itsopposite sides with two symmetrical side walls of triangular form 16which includes a base rim portion of slow slope 18 extending between anupper corner 20 of the back portion 14 and a lower corner 22 of the seatportion 12 and a rounded apex 24 with two sides 26 both serving as a legof the chair. That is, in accordance with the invented chair, the seat12 and the back 14 may be reversible by indexing the support arms ashereinafter described. The sidewalls 16 are externally provided with twoposts 28 of polygonal and preferably pentagonal or hexagonal form insection. Alternatively, the post may be of a rod-like configurationhaving around its circumferentail region an external toothing as shownin FIG. 4. To the post 28 is indexably mounted a support arm 30.

The support arm 30 is typically formed into an ear profile including ahead portion of large width 32 and a tail end of small width 34. Thehead portion 32 is provided with an aperture 36 for interlockingseparable engagement with the post 28.

In another embodiment shown in FIG. 4, the post 28 is of a rod likemember and provided with an external toothing 38 at its circumferentialregion whereas an aperture 36 is provided with an internal. toothing 40adapted to be made into an interlocking separable engagement with thepost 28 having the external toothing 38 in an indexing operationalrelation.

In the indexing operation of the support arm 30 in cooperation with thechair body 10, the head portion 32 of the arm is completely disengagedand separated from the post 28 in case of the first embodiment whereasin case of the second embodiment the support arm at its head portionisinseparably connected to the main body through a spring means ashereinafter described.

In FIG. 5, the post 28 comprises a base external toothing 42 and anextension 44 possessing therein a guide slot 46. While the aperturedmeans of the support arm 30 comprises an internal toothing 48 and aprojection 50 adapted to be inserted into the guide slot 46 and having aguide groove 52 for mounting therein spring means 54. The groove 52 isopened at its one end for insertion of the spring means and closed atits opposite end except a center hole for passing a core fastener of thespring means. By this construction, the support arm is made into aninterlocking inseparable engagement with the post in the indexingrelation.

As best shown in FIGS. 1 and 6., tail end 34 of the support arm isinterconnected with each other at the rear side of the seat back 14 by aconnecting pipe 56 through a coupling member 58 embeded in one end ofthe connection pipe 56, an adapter 60 encircling the said end and afastener 62 screwed into the coupling member 58. An inserting post forthe fastener 62 is somewhat protruded outwardly to form a protuberance64 so that the bending distorsion converged at the tail end of thesupport arm when the head portion of the arm is somewhat widened forindexing operation is satisfactorily absorved by the said protuberance64 without damaging the tail end of the support arm.

The main body of the chair may be provided with a safty band, forexample, a T-shaped band 66 as best shown in FIG. 1.

All members of the chair in accordance with the present invention may bemade of synthetic resin but some member, particularly, support membersare preferably reinforced by a beam 68.

In the positioning operation of the chair, the head portion of thesupport arms are manually disengaged from the posts for indexing thesupport arms against the chair body as desired according to the purpose.For example, when the support arms are indexed as shwon in FIG. 1, thechair serves as a cradle or rocking chair. On the other hand, when thesupport arms are indexed in the positions A and B as shown in FIG. 3,the chair will serve as a stationary chair.

While, certain preferred embodiments of the invention have beenillustrated by way of example in the drawings and particularlydescribed, it will be understood that modifications may be made in theconstructions and that the invention is no way limited to theembodiments shown.

What is claimed is:

l. A chair comprising a main body having integrally formed therewith aseat portion, a back portion extending therefrom and two sidewallportions joining said seat and back portions at opposed sides thereof, apair of support arms indexably mounted adjacent at least one of theirends to the outer sides of said sidewall portions, and post meansprovided on each of said sidewall portions and projecting laterally andoutwardly therefrom for connection with said support arms, said postmeans comprising a projection of circular section and having an outertooth formation about its periphery, said support arms at said indexablymounted ends being formed with a circular bore provided with an innercomplementary tooth formation in meshing engagement with said outertooth formation.

2. A chair according to claim 1, wherein each of said sidewall portionsis substantially in the form of a triangular segment the base of whichhas a shallow inward curve linking the upper corner of said back portionwith an outer corner of said seat portion, the apex of the triangularsegment being rounded and the sides of the triangular segment at theboundary of said body portion forming legs of the chair.

3. A chair according to claim 2, wherein each support arm has asubstantially ear-shaped profile and includes a head portion of largewidth which is provided with an apertured means for interlockingengagement with the post means, each support arm further having a tailend of a width smaller than that of the head portion, the tail ends ofeach of said support arms being interconnected.

4. A chair according to claim 3, wherein said tail end of each supportarm is provided with a distortion absorbing means comprising aprotruberance for permitting absorbtion of bending forces resulting fromindexing of said support means.

* l= l l

1. A chair comprising a main body having integrally formed therewith aseat portion, a back portion extending therefrom and two sidewallportions joining said seat and back portions at opposed sides thereof, apair of support arms indexably mounted adjacent at least one of theirends to the outer sides of said sidewall portions, and post meansprovided on each of said sidewall portions and projecting laterally andoutwardly therefrom for connection with said support arms, said postmeans comprising a projection of circular section and having an outertooth formation about its periphery, said support arms at said indexablymounted ends being formed with a circular bore provided with an innercomplementary tooth formation in meshing engagement with said outertooth formation.
 2. A chair according to claim 1, wherein each of saidsidewall portions is substantially in the form of a triangular segmentthe base of which has a shallow inward curve linking the upper corner ofsaid back portion with an outer corner of said seat portion, the apex ofthe triangular segment being rounded and the sides of the triangularsegment at the boundary of said body portion forming legs of the chair.3. A chair according to claim 2, wherein each support arm has asubstantially ear-shaped profile and includes a head portion of largewidth which is provided with an apertured means for interlockingengagement with the post means, each support arm further having a tailend of a width smaller than that of the head portion, the tail ends ofeach of said support arms being interconnected.
 4. A chair according toclaim 3, wherein said tail end of each support arm is provided with adistortion absorbing means comprising a protruberance for permittingabsorbtion of bending forces resulting from indexing of said supportmeans.